portraits

On January 17 of this year, I suddenly found myself in a terrifying, all-too-real nightmare. I was standing on the edge of a frozen lake near my home on Mount Desert Island, Maine. In front of me were snowmobile tracks that disappeared into the blackness of the frigid night. I knew that my 13-year-old daughter, Jolie, was a passenger on that snowmobile; and I had just received word from local firefighters that the tracks ended in open water.

Check out these rather ordinary looking portraits. They're all fake. Not in the sense that they were Photoshopped, but rather they were completely generated by artificial intelligence. That's right: none of these people actually exist.

Here's a 5-minute short film by filmmaker Robert Sherwood about the work of Australian photographer Trent Mitchell and his latest project Inner Atlas, a series of portraits of bodysurfers flowing with ocean waves.

For a long time, I have been building sets or props for my images, which in time developed into making and selling furniture as a hobby business. I thought it about time I made videos detailing the process of those builds and the “high budget” results that can be achieved with little financial outlay and a little DIY.

To bring some Christmas cheer to sick children stuck in hospitals, the Christmas Wish Project recently assembled 100 volunteers in 10 cities across 4 countries for an ambitious portrait project. The photographers made magical Christmas portraits for over 200+ kids and their families.

Suzanne Jongmans creates Renaissance-style portraits that have an unusual twist: look a little more closely and you'll notice that each of her costumes was made using used packing materials such as styrofoam and bubble wrap.

After years of shooting portraits with Canon cameras, photographer Sean Tucker recently switched over to Sony gear. After many people warned him that his portraits would suffer from Sony's "terrible" skin tones, Tucker decided to put the cameras to the test himself in the 20-minute video above.

Taking portraits in bright sunlight has been a bit of a no-no for a long time, but the truth is that you can actually get stunning results if you use a fill flash. The results look awesome and give a high-end feel to any outdoor portrait, and the best thing is that it's really not too difficult. You just need to understand how to use a fill flash.

How you light your subject is one of the key decisions you'll need to make when shooting portraits. The Koldunov Brothers published this 9-minute tutorial showing the impact the height of a light source makes and some typical mistakes photographers make in placing and angling lights.

Dog owners often look strangely similar to the dogs they love. Animal photographer Gerrard Gethings turned this concept into an amusing photo series titled Do You Look Like Your Dog?.

Wedding photographer and Nikon Ambassador Brett Florens recently gave this 9-minute workshop demo on how you can shoot better portraits in harsh sunlight.

Here's something you may not have known about the 1800s wet plate collodion photography process: it can make certain tattoos disappear in photos. It's a curious phenomenon that photographer Michael Bradley used for his portrait project Puaki.

Portrait photographers generally pick focal lengths somewhere between 80mm and 135mm, which produces a flattened perspective distortion when the subject fills up the frame. Photographer Keydrin Franklin of 924photography recently decided to try his hand with shooting portraits with a 500mm super-telephoto lens.

A lot of the times when you’re shooting in direct sun, it’s very harsh on your subject’s face. Many people try not to put themselves in this situation because of it. Sometimes you have no choice, or maybe you like the location a lot so you have to put up with the challenge. Without any equipment, the sun can create harsh shadows and an unflattering look on your talent.

Wedding photographers are always looking to take creative, novel portraits and a quick, simple trick is often sitting right in their pocket. By using a phone screen as a reflective surface, it is possible to cover up unsightly elements, add intrigue, and make an image that much more interesting.

If you've ever asked your friends to pose for a photo shoot before, you may have found that it can be difficult achieving high-quality poses when your subject doesn't have modeling experience. In this 5-minute video, photographer Sheldon Evans shares solid tips for how to overcome this hurdle.

Photographer Alan Powdrill has long been intrigued by tattoos and the idea that people would make permanent statements on their skin. For his project Covered, Powdrill shot portraits of heavily tattooed people in the UK both with and without clothes on.

Art has no rules. Right? Wrong! Call me cranky, but I don’t like the latest photography trends. I love simple, classic portraiture, and I admire legendary photographers like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Albert Watson. That’s why I put together my 10 Commandments of Portrait Photography.

For her latest project "A Dog's Life," photographer Alícia Rius shot portraits of dogs and their possessions to provide a glimpse into "the kind of life they live."

Jedi mind tricks are not just for Jedi. They’re for photographers too. Us portrait photographers face a difficult mission. We must form instant connections with our subjects. Have you ever photographed someone with whom you just can’t click? I have, and it sucks.

At the WPPI wedding and portrait photography conference and expo this year, photographer Trevor Dayley taught this 1-hour class titled "17 Fast, Easy, Awesome Lighting Recipes." Dayley shares 17 lighting ideas you can keep in mind on any portrait shoot using a memorization story.

I’d love to have access to a massive studio space with all of the latest amenities. Who wouldn’t? But in many cases, a living room is all you need to get the dynamic shot you’re looking for. Nearly all of my favorite studio shots were done with my Oliphant backdrops in a 10x15-foot room.

She came in for her senior session. Her hair was a mess of tangled waves, unruly and uncooperative. Her face was covered with freckles and dotted with acne. She wasn’t model proportions and the clothing she wore required careful adjustment to keep it from bunching up in places.

Need some posing inspiration for an upcoming wedding or engagement portrait shoot? Photographers Sara Byrne and Phil Chester made this 2-minute video that shows some of the trendiest poses being used these days.